Gathering unique and thoughtful contributions from leading international scholars, this timely Research Handbook offers diverse perspectives on university rankings twenty years after the first global rankings emerged. It presents an in-depth analysis that reflects the current state of research on rankings, their influence and impact. The Research Handbook explores how rankings and their impacts can be theorized and conceptualized, as well as the methodological tensions that rankings generate. It further examines how rankings have affected institutional behaviours and interacted with the quality agenda in higher education, examining what rankings mean for equity, teaching and learning, and students. Chapters also analyse how rankings interact with and accentuate the geopolitics of higher education, looking ahead to emergent policy issues and responses to rankings. Higher education researchers, policy and decision makers as well as rankings followers will find the critical insights into globalisation and geopolitics, quality assurance, international comparability and assessment, and student outcomes and learning in this Research Handbook interesting. It will also be a useful read for higher education and university leaders and managers wanting a better understanding of rankings and their usefulness and challenges.